For Máximo Peña, every Monday for the past 30 years meant one thing—an evening at the Jet Set nightclub, one of Santo Domingo’s most iconic venues. This week, eager to see the legendary Dominican merengue singer Rubby Pérez, he brought along his wife and sister. Now, all three are feared dead, buried beneath the wreckage after the nightclub’s roof collapsed mid-performance, killing at least 184 people.
“I haven’t heard any news about any of them,” says Shailyn Peña, Máximo’s 17-year-old daughter, sitting on a low wall outside the disaster site. “It was just another Monday night for them. In fact, my dad invited my mum to come too but at the last minute she decided not to go. It was a blessing in disguise.”
As rescue workers continue to comb through the debris, Shailyn waits—like so many others—for word on her missing loved ones. Behind her, teams from Israel and Mexico work alongside local responders, using heat-seeking devices to detect any remaining signs of life.
Shailyn says her cousin is among those digging through the rubble, which gives her a small sense of comfort. “It brings me peace knowing someone from our family is in there doing everything she can to find him,” she says. But the long hours and lack of information are taking their toll.
“I feel the urge to just go in there and push aside all the rocks and pull him out. But as much as I want to, I really can’t. I just have to sit here and wait it out.”
Photos of Shailyn and her father from happier times now circulate alongside images of devastation. Her birthday is Thursday—a day she would normally spend with her dad, stepmother, and aunt. Now, she faces it amid overwhelming grief and fear.
Authorities continue to provide regular updates, though each one grows grimmer. Rescue crews occasionally emerge with someone still alive, offering brief flickers of hope. More often, they carry stretchers bearing covered bodies, a painful confirmation of the tragedy’s scale.
Juan Manuel Méndez, Director of the Emergency Operations Centre, assured families that the search effort is far from over. “Nothing can be ruled out,” he said. “We are going to go over every inch of the rubble here to give the families of those caught up in the disaster some kind of closure.”
In recognition of the catastrophe, President Luis Abinader declared three days of national mourning. Among the deceased are some of the country’s most beloved figures: Rubby Pérez himself, former professional baseball players Octavio Dotel and Tony Blanco, and a regional governor. Countless others were fans of Pérez and devoted lovers of merengue music.
More than 300 rescue workers have spent two days painstakingly digging through the ruins of the club, one of Santo Domingo’s best-known nightlife landmarks.
While the immediate focus remains on finding survivors, questions about how such a collapse could happen are already emerging. One theory gaining traction points to a fire at the nightclub two years ago, which may have structurally weakened the building. Some locals fear that repairs, if done at all, were not up to safety standards.
Antonio Espaillat, owner of Jet Set, posted a video message offering condolences on behalf of “all the Jet Set family” and stated that he and his team are cooperating “totally and transparently with the authorities” investigating the disaster.
Shailyn, too, has heard the rumors about the fire and believes it may have contributed to the collapse. But for now, that’s not her main concern. Her focus is on her missing father and her family’s well-being. Despite attempts to shield her younger stepsisters from the truth, they learned about the tragedy from classmates.
“They are terrified,” she says.
As the country reels from what is being described as the worst nightclub disaster in its modern history, families like Shailyn’s can only wait—hoping for a miracle, dreading confirmation, and grappling with unbearable loss.
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Written By Elegbe Theodore